Given: Marcel Duchamp（2022）
[VR]
Selected as a finalist for the NEWVIEW AWARDS 2022
Selected for the Yamanashi Media Arts Award
VR artwork completely controls the viewer’s sense of sight, thereby influencing other senses and even recreating a sense of physicality. In this way, VR is the ultimate form of “retinal” expression. Given that contemporary art began by rejecting retinal painting, how can we understand VR artwork in this context?
This artist responsible for this rejection is Marcel Duchamp, widely regarded as the father of contemporary art. Here then, I would like to focus on his last major artwork, Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas (1944-1966). Unveiled after his death, Given is a multi-layered virtual landscaped composed of a brick wall, a reclining nude figure, a motorized waterfall, and a background screen made out of collaged and painted photographs. This tableau is visible only through two peepholes cut in a wooden door.
I was moved by the fact that Duchamp, who had seemingly given up art for chess, produced an artwork in his later years which required not just his hands, but his entire body to create. In Given, I see an artwork which has melted into virtual reality.
My own work, Given: Marcel Duchamp, draws inspiration from this posthumous artwork in an attempt to gain insight into Marcel Duchamp’s world. Through my VR artwork, I attempt to demonstrate my respect for his ideas and his sincerity toward art.
VR作品は、視界を完全に支配する事で他の知覚にも影響を与え身体性まで再現するという点では、究極の“網膜的”表現であると考える。
網膜的絵画を否定する事で始まった現代美術の文脈と、どのように接続できるだろうか。
ここで私は、その言説の張本人である「現代美術の父」マルセル・デュシャンの死後に発表された「Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas」通称「遺作」に注目したい。
覗き穴が開けられた扉、煉瓦壁、横たわる裸体像、電気仕掛けの滝、写真をコラージュし彩色された背景幕等によって複層的に作り出されたバーチャルの景色。
作品制作をやめ、専らチェスにふけっていると考えられていたデュシャンが手、どころか全身を動かして晩年に制作した作品がこれであった事に、私は感動を覚えると共に、バーチャル・リアリティとの融合を見るのである。
この作品では、「遺作」からインスピレーションを得てマルセル・デュシャンの世界に独自に迫る事を試みた。
彼の思考と美術に対する誠実さに敬意を表する。